Get an insight into the installation I Felt People Dancing by Alison O’Daniel! Click here for the video documentation.

In her art, Alison O’Daniel combines film, sculpture, and sound to create big installations. [An installation is an artwork in a space.] Alison O’Daniel is hard of hearing herself. For her art, she works together with hearing, deaf, and hard of hearing people. Alison O’Daniel has experienced herself: How does it feel not to hear some information? What gaps does it create? This experience is part of her art. She deals with the question: How can we take in information in other ways? How do we see, hear, and feel this information?

The exhibition at the Kunsthalle is Alison O’Daniel’s first solo exhibition in a german museum. For this exhibition, Alison O’Daniel will conceive a new installation. The exhibition space of the Kunsthalle is situated in an old church. The sound there is special. There is a strong echo. This special feature is part of the installation.
Due to the corona virus pandemic, Alison O’Daniel was not able to travel to Germany in preparation. Therefore she asked a group of deaf and hard of hearing people from Osnabrück for support. They spent time in the exhibition space. They took in the sounds of the space. They captured their impressions. In drawings. Or movements. Out of these impressions, Alison O’Daniel created a big carpet. This carpet relates to misunderstandings. The reason for these misunderstandings are barriers. In addition to the carpet there will be a video work. The sound of the video will be coming from various loud speakers. The speakers are dispersed throughout the room.

Alison O’Daniel lives and works in Los Angeles. She is the winner of the 2019 Louis Comfort Tiffany and Creative Capital award, the same year she was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 Newcomer:in in Independent Film. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Film at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Most recently, her work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions and screenings at prestigious institutions, including the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tallinn Art Hall (all 2019); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2018); and Art in General, New York (2016).

The exhibition is supported by the Niedersächsische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, the Stiftung der Sparkasse Osnabrück, the Stiftung Niedersachsen and the Freunde der Kunsthalle Osnabrück e.V.